00:00In the 1990s, Japan's bullet trains had a bizarre problem.
00:03Every time they entered a tunnel at high speed,
00:06the train crushed air in the tunnel like a balloon in a pipe,
00:10blast out the other end like a shockwave shaking home.
00:12Engineers were stuck until one of them, who happened to be a birdwatcher, had a wild idea.
00:16You notice how kingfishers dive into water without making a splash thanks to their long, sharp beaks.
00:21So they redesigned the train's nose to copy the kingfisher's shit.
00:24Result? No more tunnel booms, just silence at 200 miles per hour.
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